Luca Severi's THAT CLICK highlights a photo- grapher you should know -- but maybe don't

What a fun -- charming, surprising, fast-paced -- ride is the new documentary, THAT CLICK, all about the life and work of a certain Canadian-born celebrity photographer by the name of Douglas Kirkland. Though I had seen quite a bit of his ground-breaking work down the decades, TrustMovies never seemed to know (or at least to remember) the guy's name. This new documentary, written and directed by Italian-born filmmaker, Luca Severi, has certainly changed that. 

After viewing this film, one possible reason I find for Kirkland's near anonymity -- even among those of us who follow film and performers fairly closely -- might just be the relatively small ego Mr. Kirkland seems to possess. Which I am not sure can be said about most other famous shutterbugs. Richard Avedon, anyone?

In any case, Signore Severi (shown at left), who is clearly enamored of both Kirkland and his work (as I suspect you will be, too, once you've seen the doc) has organized his movie so that we keep jumping back and forth in time, as we see more and more of the history of the photographer, along with his oeuvre. But this jumping is fun in its own right, while keeping us alert, and the work itself shows how Kirkland has grown and changed over the passing decades.

It is also impressive how very fond of Kirkland were and are so many of the celebrities he has captured on film (and eventually on digital). From the likes of Elizabeth Taylor (who initially said "interview only -- no photos" until our guy, just starting out, sweetly begged her permission) to Marilyn Monroe (whose photo session produced perhaps the loveliest, most intimate and special set of photos ever taken of this icon), the work is indeed impressive and includes plenty of international stars (Brigitte Bardot, Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve), too.

More recent celebs include the likes of Sharon Stone (above), Michelle Williams (below), and Baz Luhrmann (further below), all of whom have plenty of interesting, often telling things  to say about the man and his work. It is also clear that they dearly love and appreciate him and are well-spoken enough to pass this appreciation on to us.

The doc covers more than mere celebrity photography, as our man seems also to have had an interest in current events -- like the huge economic downturn that put many folk out of work back in the 70s -- and also in following up with the non-celebrity subjects of his photography and their continued well-being, of which he proved to be a part.

How Kirkland (shown below) kept up with both the times and the changes in photography is highlighted, with results -- as per usual concerning this talented man -- that are well worth viewing. For anyone in the least besotted by our glamour icons of the past (Ann-Margaret to Coco Chanel) and present (Nicole Kidman), That Click would seem a must. For anyone simply interested in photography, making the acquaintance of this fellow who just keeps on going -- and growing -- proves a lovely thing to do. 

The 90-minute documentary, from Omnibus Entertainment (a division of Film Movement), hits the street on DVD and digital this coming Tuesday, March 16. Click here for more information on how to view it.

December Sunday Corner With Lee Liberman: THE CROWN, SEASON 3 -- 1964-1977

There was a young lady from Dallas 

Who used a dynamite stick as a phallus. 

They found her vagina in North Carolina 

and her asshole in Buckingham Palace. 

Imagined not real, the limerick, above, that the screenwriter put in the mouth of Princess Margaret at a White House party in 1965 did the trick: At a lavish dinner party hosted by the Johnson’s for the Snowdon’s, Margaret wooed our president in vernacular they both enjoyed, getting Lyndon to agree to the British government’s plea for a U.S. bailout during an urgent financial crisis. Johnson had been refusing PM Harold Wilson’s calls (the Brit’s weren’t backing his war in Vietnam). But following Margaret and Tony’s visit, the ‘special relationship’ went from cool back to sure-footed. Her thrilling success didn’t widen Margaret’s sphere of influence at home as she was regarded as a bomb-thrower best kept on the down-low. Peter Morgan says he made up what happened at that dinner, but it was so like the principals, one can only wish it did, and pity poor Margaret — the little ‘vice queen’ with an applause deficit.

Morgan’s marvelous Netflix series continues with vignettes that are smaller than the drama of the world war era but absorbing. Here is Britain during the middle years of the Queen (now played by Olivia Colman of The Favourite), the young adulthood of Prince Charles and Princess Anne and the Snowdon scandals. One feels a tad sorry for the Windsors— the ruthless scrutiny and humiliations visited on this ordinary family living under glass.

The royal porn may pay for itself despite the schadenfreude and outright rejection it brings on itself, fed by the soap-opera tales of their private lives. The Windsors function with great success as a soft-touch but powerful PR firm — the outcome of the Crown’s search for meaning as it evolved from ruling monarchy to figurehead. Many royals work full time dutifully promoting civic and social causes. The self-imposed rules they live by assure that duty and kindness are quite, if not perfectly, constant; the Crown ‘firm’ functions as parent archetype, committed to useful work and maintenance of the public image. (Prince Andrew, having embarrassed himself in an unapologetic interview about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, has just been cut from the firm’s public face upon the intervention of Prince Charles, it is reported, asserting himself as monarch-to-be.) Maybe the US could profit from more do-good, apolitical authority.

The salacious chapters have some nuggets. We learn new about the origins of Charles (Josh O’Connor, Only You) and Camilla (Emerald Fennell, below). Camilla’s relationship with Andrew Parker-Bowles (Andrew Buchan) was more passionate than imagined in which they used others to make each other jealous, involving Charles and an acerbic Princess Anne (well-acted by Erin Doherty) who joined the quadrangle “for a bit of fun”. Lord Mountbatten and the Queen mother then broke up the party, instigating Camilla’s marriage to Parker-Bowles while Charles was on Naval duty. (No wonder he would later defiantly flout his marriage to Diana.) Much more domestic nastiness appears in the chapter about the affairs of Tony Snowdon (he who winsomely charmed the Queen to secure her favor) and Princess Margaret precipitating the deterioration of their marriage — splashy tabloid fodder then, soap-opera now.

It’s not all soap. A KGB spy is discovered living in the Palace and there are labor troubles. Prince Philip, splendidly acted by Tobias Menzies (Game of Thrones, Outlander; click here to read a fine interview with the actor), has a mid-life crisis coinciding with the US moon landing and visit of the astronauts to the palace. The Prince, a pilot himself, unhappily sidelined from adventure, waxes in awe of the young astronauts until he meets them, drippy with colds, having nothing of awe to report beyond the lists they had to tick off as they worked through their mission. Philip doesn’t get that ‘meaning’ is all in the doing — the action of climbing the mountain not getting to the top. Menzies (below, l; Prince Philip, r) conveys Philip’s emotions with such self-restraint, he has made himself the stealth star of this ensemble.

A chapter is devoted to the passing of David, Duke of Windsor (Derek Jacobi) living in exile in France and shunned with his notorious wife Wallis (Geraldine Chaplin), for whom he abdicated the throne. Again, Morgan ignores the elephant in the room — the pair’s unholy infatuation with the Nazi’s that led to their non-grata status, making government quietly grateful that divorced American Wallis kept David from the throne. Perhaps a different screenwriter at a different time will dramatize that juicy story.

Crown - 3’s most memorable episode may be the mining incident at Aberfan in 1966, a tiny Welch town that suffered a tragic coal-debris slide. After days of rain, a tip (little hill) of coal debris sank, sliding downward and across the street, burying the town elementary school. It killed 144 people, most of them kids. PM Harold Wilson, Prince Phillip, and camera-slung Tony Snowdon went to the scene at once but their description of the horror and the PM’s urgings could not convince the Queen to go — it fell to rogue Labour party members to induce her late visit. Labour threatened to blame the Queen and prior Tory governments who had ignored reported dangers at the mine site. Several lines of copy on the screen report that the Queen’s failure to go at once to Aberfan remains a matter of deep regret to Elizabeth, and that she has visited the town often in intervening years.

Another chapter shows us the character of the monarch-in-waiting — that is the story of Charles’s Welsh language and history instruction prior to his investiture as the Prince of Wales. The Welsh, especially his local university tutor, anticipate the chore with derision, only for Charles to win them over with sincere, earnest effort. Charles is well-conveyed by O’Connor, who conjures him quite completely (O'Connor below r, Prince Charles l)

At end, Crown 3 was as entertaining as earlier series, supporting Morgan’s stated goal to use the monarchy as a canvas for this decade or so of the latter 20th century, all the while laying out a good gossip. Full cast replacement helps his case, as you focus less on individuals and more on the unfolding stories of the era.

At left, screenwriter, Peter Morgan and his partner, Gillian Anderson, who will appear in the next edition of The Crown as Margaret Thatcher.

The above post was written by 

our monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman

Leslie Ann Coles' enchanting 2016 music documentary, MELODY MAKERS, finally arrives

Forget Rolling Stone. The music magazine you need to know all about -- and will find out plenty via this new film -- is the no-longer-published British weekly, Melody Maker, which ruled the music roost for most of its 75-year run, ceding its deserved dominance to rivals only when its owners insisted on major coverage going to popular boy bands and that ilk, rather than to the folk who actually made the music worth keeping.

As written and directed by Leslie Ann Coles (shown at left) and expertly edited by Mark Sanders, the film spends just the right amount of time with the many talking heads rounded up to speak about this marvelous magazine and its storied (even if many times accidental) scoops and articles that could and usually did goose the careers of the musical artists involved -- sometimes into overdrive.

We hear from former editors and journalists/ critics and especially from one particular photographer, Barrie Wentzell, whose resonant work (shown below) is also redolent and utterly defining of a time long gone -- and much missed by many of us.

The thing -- other than the subject itself -- that makes this documentary so special is how very speedy is the dialog, together with the ideas tossed around here. Similar to the fast pace of another recent doc, Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, the movie assumes its audience to be intelligent and quick-thinking and so neither drags along nor grows repetitive (à la Ken Burns), as it drops its many bons mots and makes us think, assess and often laugh along the way.

What all these interviewees have to say, and what we learn about the bands, individual musicians, music politics and just-plain gossip of the day should delight and surprise anyone who lived through and paid attention to the music scene of this day (particularly the 1950s, 60s and 70s).

For instance: As there were few to no teachers of guitar in Britain at the time, rock musicians had to learn the instrument, along with what it could be made to do, all by themselves. Once something new was achieved, it was often shared, as the musicians moved on to yet another new chord or challenge. (You'll also discover what the Mafia had to do with why a magazine as popular as Melody Maker never saw U.S. distribution.)

As all this occurred well before the internet appeared, the relationship between the magazine and the musicians it covered was more than a little "chummy," which had both positive and negative effects. While it's hard not to recall this time as a kind of golden age, the tone of the doc is never self-congratulatory. These folk look back on things with an eye both distanced and melancholic. Still, when at the end of the movie, the workers tell us that these were the best jobs they ever had, you'll be hard put to disagree. Once you've seen this film, you'll understand why, had you been young in Great Britain back in the day, Melody Maker would have been your must-read.

From Cleopatra Entertainment and running just 78 minutes, Melody Makers opens in Los Angeles today, Friday, November 29, for a week-long run at the Arena CineLounge Sunset, 6464 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood CA, followed by the Apple iBook debut on the same day -- with a DVD Release scheduled for December 17. 

Ralph Fiennes & David Hare's excellent bio-pic of Rudolf Nureyev, THE WHITE CROW, opens

What a fine and fascinating entertainment, as well as one of the better bio-pics of recent times, is THE WHITE CROW -- the very welcome collaboration between director/co-star Ralph Fiennes, screenwriter David Hare, and the very impressive newcomer actor/dancer taking the title role, Oleg Ivenko, who plays the young adult Rudolf Nureyev.

What these three have given us is a portrait of Nureyev that seems nuanced, detailed and believable factually, psychologically and especially emotionally.

Fiennes (shown at right) and Hare go back and forth in time near constantly, and this works surprisingly well, TrustMovies thinks, because the pair concentrates less on connecting the specific what-happened-and-why dots than on the emotions these events raise in both the child and the young adult Nureyev. Thus we are consistently placed within both the heart and mind of the character, and this helps us understand the talented, gorgeous and highly self-centered man at the core of this film.

Mr. Ivenko, below, handles both the dance and the acting with aplomb. Perhaps Fiennes understood how to capture and make best use

of this young man's talents -- which in so many ways mirror those of Nureyev -- without asking him to do too much. In fact, Ivenko's is a paired-down performance -- he is most often shown simply "thinking" -- relying in good part of his handsome face, terrific body and dance skill to bring to life the international ballet idol of the 1960s and 70s. It works.

Aside from the childhood flashbacks, The White Crow concentrates on Nureyev's ballet training, particularly that under the tutelage of his chosen teacher, Pushkin (played with great restraint and a fine undercurrent by Fiennes, above, right), mixed consistently with his traveling in the Russian troupe to Paris, where he first became rightly famous.

There he meets and bonds with the young woman, Clara Saint (Adèle Exarchopoulos, above, right) and the French dancer/choreographer Pierre Lacotte (Raphaël Personnaz, below, right), both of whom prove instrumental in the Parisian life of our dancer, as well as in the choice he must finally make.

Thanks to the ever-invasive Russian officials assigned to chaperone/guard the dance troupe, our narcissistic hero champs harder at his bit until the exceedingly suspenseful climax of this first-rate film, which -- if the details of the finale are maybe not completely as-they-were -- can be forgiven because of the filmmakers' skillful handling of this scene.

Those of us old enough to remember and appreciate Nureyev's talent and beauty -- his famous bisexuality is clearly shown here, too -- will probably revel in how closely Ivenko achieves all this, while younger audiences will at least be given a good taste of what this dancer/icon was all about.

The movie's dance scenes (as above and below), though not so very many, are plenty good enough to convince us of why this then-unknown dancer rose so quickly and permanently to fame. Mr. Hare's screenplay, by the way, is so appropriate and smart that you are mostly unaware of it as the film rolls along.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running a rich and not-a-moment-too-long 127 minutes, The White Crow opened on the coasts last month and is now expanding nationwide. Here in South Florida, it begins its run this Friday, May 10, and will play the Miami area at the AMC Aventura 24, Regal's South Beach 18, and the Coral Gables Art Cinema; in Fort Lauderdale at the Classic Gateway 4; in Davie at the Cinemark Paradise 24; in Boynton Beach at the Cinemark 14; in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood and the Cinemark Palace; and at the Movies of Delray and the Movies of Lake Worth. Wherever you live across the country, click here and then click on GET TICKETS (badly designed but to be found hidden in Ivenko's forehead) to view the theaters nearest you.

The best fashion documentary in a long, long while: James Crump's giddily entertaining, hugely informative ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970 -- SEX, FASHION & DISCO

How in hell could it be that a documentary this good -- enormously entertaining, full of new information and all about the world's favorite meaningless preoccupation (fashion) -- didn't get a decent theatrical release in the USA? TrustMovies suspects that this was due to the fact that the subject of ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970: SEX, FASHION & DISCO, Mr. Lopez himself, a great fashion illustrator in his day, is simply not that well known outside the fashion field.

Unlike figures such as Karl Lagerfeld and Andy Warhol, who are also seen in this film, Lopez was much better known to fashion insiders rather than to the general public. I myself had never heard of him when I sat down to view this grab-you-by-your-lapels-and-dance-you-off-to-discoland doc -- which held me in thrall for all of its 95 minutes.

As written and directed by James Crump (shown at left), the documentary introduces its unusual subject and then immediately pulls you in via compelling interviews with quite an array of fashion folk and celebrities. Fortunately, these are not simply the usual suspects. (Mr. Lopez's life and career was far too free and full for that.)

By the end of the film, Mr. Crump has made a very good case for Lopez (shown above and below) being one of, if not the most talented and important figure in all of the fashion/celebrity world, easily eclipsing the likes of marketing maven Warhol -- about whom we hear yet again how "not there" the man was, so far as his so-called art was concerned.

We see and hear about Lopez's personal life and rampant sexuality, his groundbreaking illustration (below and further below) and about the manner in which he worked, why the result was so different from anything seen before (or since, really), and of the many icons he discovered -- from Jessica Lange to Jerry Hall to Grace Jones, along with more famous models than I have time to list here.

We also hear plenty from Grace Coddington, whose thoughtful, intelligent commentary greatly enriches the film. Best of all, however, and the moral center of the movie, is the delightfully rambunctious and greatly missed Bill Cunningham, whose remembrances of Lopez and his lover/partner Juan Ramos, provide much of the humor and emotion, together with a sense of great caring for a time, place and people, the likes of which and whom we will not see again.

What a difference is the Bill Cunningham (at left, below) shown here from the older, much more staid fellow we saw in that very lovely (but very "correct") documentary, Bill Cunningham New York! (If you enjoy this film as much as did I, you'll also want to watch the extended interview with Cunningham that is part of the Bonus Features on the DVD.)

Mr. Crump is also to be congratulated for giving us such lovely footage of Jessica Lange (below), seemingly speaking off the cuff and from the heart. She is, as usual, a pleasure to see and hear -- even more so telling us about a time and place we had no idea she'd been such a part of.

The documentary flips back and forth in time between the 60s and 70s yet is so lively and fun, you won't mind at all. And what to make of the young Karl Lagerfeld (below) we view here? Quite a difference from the éminence grise we've seen over the past couple of decades! His treatment of Antonio at the end of the latter's career, as told us by Cunningham, makes for the emotional high point of the film.

Most important, of course, is Lopez himself, and Crump makes it clear what a wonder he was. A better artist than Warhol, he had not a whit of interest in marketing. And that seems to have made the major difference between their careers.

Antonio wanted to live and create (and have as much sex as possible) -- all of which he did. We have not, nor probably will we, encounter this combo of talent, personality and achievement in the fashion field again.

From Film Movement and arriving on DVD and digital this coming Tuesday, February 12, Antonio Lopez: Sex, Fashion & Disco will be available for purchase and/or rental. Click here to view the various ways in which you can see this documentary.

MOYNIHAN: Joseph Dorman and Toby Perl Freilich's documentary is year's best (so far)

Boy, could we use him now. 

In our current age of utter divisiveness and lack of appreciation of truth and/or facts, the figure and memory of Daniel Patrick Moynihan stands maybe medium-to-tall. It should stand a lot taller. For those of us old enough to recall this four-term Senator from New York who also served four administrations, both Democratic and Republican, and was responsible for some of the most ground-breaking and important work in trying to bring about equality for our country's Black population, phrases such as The Moynihan Report and "benign neglect" may come to mind to somewhat tarnish the reputation. Younger audiences may simply shrug and ask, Who?

The beauty and importance of the new documentary MOYNIHAN, from filmmakers Joseph Dorman and Toby Perl Freilich (shown above, with Ms Freilich on the right), lies in its ability to show both young and old generations who this singular man was and what he was able to accomplish via his intelligence and perseverance, as well as his understanding and appreciation of the human condition in so many of its seemingly contradictory forms. Consequently, he was able to convince a right-wing President such as Richard Nixon to actually pursue the much-needed goal of equality for all perhaps even more than the supposedly left-wing President, Lyndon Johnson.

As in his astonishingly fine documentary, Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, as well as in his difficult and hugely challenging doc, Colliding Dreams, (co-directed by Oren Rudavsky), Mr. Dorman, together with Ms Freilich (Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment) weave together history (personal, political, national) with philosophy and talking-head interviews that together create a rich and deep portrait of a man -- shown above in his earlier years, below in a later decade -- who arguably contributed as much as, probably more, than anyone else toward bringing the USA closer to its original commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because he understood something that seems to have eluded much of America today: Freedom without equality is not worth very much.

Even more (much more, in fact) that this year's earlier and popular doc on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, RBG, Moynihan is chock full of the kind of intelligence, fact and detail that will keep you glued to the screen and savoring every word. The film is dense but accessible, challenging but entertaining. And, as we've come to expect from Dorman, it never unduly pushes a particular theory or connection. It does, however, connect.

Take Moynihan's famous "report," which raised an alarm about the high number of black families in which the father was not present and what this had done to the family and its fortunes. From this documentary we learn that Moynihan himself was the product of a family in which Dad went missing fairly early on. While no underscoring or psychological second-guessing are given here, the connection between Moynihan's life and his report will surely not go unnoticed by viewers.

Again, though no cheap-jack psychology is offered here, the documentary manages to build not only an adept history of the man -- his labors, beliefs and goals -- but also a quietly appropriate psychological profile, as well. We hear from his wife, Elizabeth (above) and one of his children (Moynihan himself died in 2003), as well as from co-workers, politicians, journalists (Ta-Nehisi Coates, below) and employees, and the combined result is a portrait teeming with life, ideas and ideals.

Though some liberals labeled the man a neo-conservative, while the right-wing called him everything from Socialist to Communist, the actual Moynihan was, as he preferred, adverse to any easy label. And though he sometimes appeared to contradict even himself, this was usually because he made certain he had the proper statistics and facts in front of him prior to coming to a conclusion. Would that more Americans had -- and exercised -- this ability. In one scene, while he was Ambassador to the United Nations (below), he gives a rousing and angry defense of the state of Israel. (I would like to think that, were he alive today, he might find that little state's current actions much less worthy of praise or defense.)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan had a fine sense of humor, too, along with the ability to "perform" -- the movie's end credits display him giving a delightful lesson on a particular out-of-style skill -- and this seems to have helped keep the man and his ideas on track, just as it does the film itself. The world would be lucky to see his like again. Meanwhile, we have this terrific documentary as both a wonderful lesson and lasting memory.

Moynihan, -- running 104 minutes and distributed by First Run Features -- opens this Wednesday, October 3, for its U.S. theatrical premiere in New York City at Film Forum; on October 11 at Time and Space Limited in Hudson, New York; on October 12 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3; and in on October 19 at the AFI Silver Theater.

Elsewhere? I sure hope so. This movie deserves to play every major city in the USA. Perhaps, once word get out, it will.

Meanwhile, click here to view updated playdates, cities and  theaters.